Preacher's Kid & F.C. Grad - grateful to be free!

[Dodger]

Welcome! And to echo KLP, it is nice to see your positive attitude about your situation.

[KLP]

F.C. is Florida College (not Free Chlorine for you pool lovers). FC is the approved wholesome CofC private Bible college for NI (Non-Institutional). NI is the "Sound" or "Faithful" or "Anti" branch of CofC depending on ones perspective. Those of us in the NI always referred to ourselves as a "sound" or "faithful" congregation and those folks with fellowship halls or pooling monies for orphans, preaching schools, or missionary work were "Institutional" or "liberal" or digressive/progressive congregations because they had no authority (CENI) to add to or take away from the "work of the church". CENI is the hermeneutic of Command, Example, and/or Necessary Inference to establish authority in matters. Of course we will need to discuss specific and general authority and then the term expedient. Of course if you had gone to FC you would or should know all of this (except they leave out the part of the very existence of FC is undermining the work of the local church...which is why FC itself is "liberal" and was forbidden in my upbringing...bunch of happy clappy love people. )

Now those poor misguided whackos in the Non-Sunday school variant were just odd balls...they could not possibly be more conservative than our "Sound" congregations even with their lack of make-up, big hair, and long dresses. They were binding and making up rules against graded or adult classes where the Bible made no such rule...plus they were just odd balls. And some of them had fellowship halls. And since they didn't have divided class rooms, they often ended up have some parallel organization and building to have classes on other nights of the week. So they were whackos....obviously. Because no one can be more faithful and sound then the real self-defined faithful and sound congregations.

[Tsathoggua]

F.C. is Florida College (not Free Chlorine for you pool lovers). FC is the approved wholesome CofC private Bible college for NI (Non-Institutional). NI is the "Sound" or "Faithful" or "Anti" branch of CofC depending on ones perspective. Those of us in the NI always referred to ourselves as a "sound" or "faithful" congregation and those folks with fellowship halls or pooling monies for orphans, preaching schools, or missionary work were "Institutional" or "liberal" or digressive/progressive congregations because they had no authority (CENI) to add to or take away from the "work of the church". CENI is the hermeneutic of Command, Example, and/or Necessary Inference to establish authority in matters. Of course we will need to discuss specific and general authority and then the term expedient. Of course if you had gone to FC you would or should know all of this (except they leave out the part of the very existence of FC is undermining the work of the local church...which is why FC itself is "liberal" and was forbidden in my upbringing...bunch of happy clappy love people. )

Now those poor misguided whackos in the Non-Sunday school variant were just odd balls...they could not possibly be more conservative than our "Sound" congregations even with their lack of make-up, big hair, and long dresses. They were binding and making up rules against graded or adult classes where the Bible made no such rule...plus they were just odd balls. And some of them had fellowship halls. And since they didn't have divided class rooms, they often ended up have some parallel organization and building to have classes on other nights of the week. So they were whackos....obviously. Because no one can be more faithful and sound then the real self-defined faithful and sound congregations.

Thanks ! I had no idea!

[Dodger]

KLP, would those also be referred to as "one cuppers?"

[cathym]

One cuppers and non-Sunday-school often go hand-in-hand, but it's possible to have one without the other.

There's also the ones where women wear head doilies, and the churches with no dedicated preacher, just men of the congregation taking turns.

[KLP]

oh, just having some inside baseball fun, I am sure everyone here knows all about all the variations of CofC and all the doctrinal differences and history of splits...along with which brotherhood papers, colleges, publishes houses, and song books go with each one. And also that a 7pm start on Web night is a strong tip that the place is not exactly NI or "sound". When we were traveling and you had to size up a congregation on a Wed afternoon and all you had was the building drive by then you look for the ear marks of the unfaithful....fellowship hall, basketball goal in parking lot, possible bus, youth group icons...and the dreaded 7pm start time.

Like Bobo get tingly sensations of a squatch...you get to where you know what sort of bldg. doesn't "look right". Of course if it seats more than 300 then you can scratch that place off...no way folks standing for the truth and proclaiming the entire counsel of God can ever maintain memberships in excess of 200 for more than a year before some group needs to start a "mew work".